8. Today you must see

A minor problem i've been having with taiwan is the sanitation. I don't think the government puts much emphasis on this matter and i'm not so sure why they have not considered improvement. 1. When i walk the streets of taiwan, i will very often be holding a snack in one hand and a drink in the other. Very often, i will find myself holding onto those items for hours, simply because there are no rubbish bins. Most people in taiwan have a heart to do good, but there is a stage where frustration exceeds the sense of doing the right thing. So there is nothing with the peoples' attitudes towards environmentalism, its just that there are no rubbish bins. 2. In the city of taipei, there are many very dangerous drains in which you can drop something and never get it back. Out of those drains, come a smell of unprocessed and uncared-for water, and it covers the entire city of taipei. I'm used to it now, so it must smell somewhat okay. 3. I'm not yet used to the public toilets in taiwan, because sometimes it is just too difficult to use.

This picture shows a view from the outside. Go inside the door and turn right, is an open female toilet i.e. not separated from the male toilet.

At our bus trip toilet break, many people needed to go to the toilet so there was a very big line, of girls inside the toilet. The guys were desperate, but not that desperate. From the urinal, you can also see our tour group in the distance. I guess this is something i will need to get used to, especially in busy light-rail stations where cleaner ladies come in once every few minutes to check up on you. New years eve, i went to taipei city hall with some friends to watch the fireworks at taipei 101. There are hardly any public toilets, so when it really got crowded, people would have had to form toilet lines that extended to even the outside of the nearest McDonalds or KFC. People were beginning to get desperate. I noticed some interesting behaviour, that some girls were lining up for the guys toilets and some guys were lining up for the girls toilets. How is this good? Later i discovered why. The guys' line move a lot faster than the girls' line, and the girls figure that it will be faster to line up in the guys' line for the cubicles. The guys see the girls lining up in their line and they want a piece of it too, so they chinese swap with their wives, daughters, mums, grandmas, whoever is nearest to the toilet. Nobody thinks you're weird for lining up in the wrong line, just put on a blank expression, look up at the ceiling aimlessly and take a step forward every now and then. It cracks me up. An area's culture develops like this: one person starts something and all of a sudden everyone else follows. This will become an integral part of the taiwanese culture if they do not build some more public toilets - quickly.

A feature of taiwanese culture is spontaneity and creativity. The games are a lot cheaper and funner than the clowns and buckets we get back in australia. Here is a few of the selection:

Shoot Snoopy

Catch a Prawn


The aim of the game is to catch a prawn with a fragile fishing net. Once the net breaks it's game over. Notice in the back there is a cooking stand, for you to cook your prize to perfection.

Mechanical Maze

Lead the baton through the moving mechanical maze in the fastest time possible.

Mahjong Tiles

Catch a Turtle

This game sounds cute. If you are good enough, your prize can become your pet! The game i paid most attention to was the Hoop Toss.


There are blue sticks in every row of prizes and to win a prize, just toss a hoop into a stick on the same row. The prizes are huge and so was the number of people playing it. The number of hoops landing next to the prizes can tell a story. I stood there for about 15 minutes watching people play this game. Some people came really close to looping the hoop onto the stick, but no one won any prizes. Finally, after some thought, i declared this game impossible because firstly the stick is much longer than it is wide, so wide that it is even bigger than the hoop. In the back, the chinese words clarify in detail the conditions of a win, i.e. no bouncing off other objects, no half in half out etc. Which is why it is impossible. The stall lady was a busy lady, running around supplying everyone with hoops and collecting lots of money. While i was watching, she approached me a few times to ask if i wanted to play, each time i declined. She should have had a big grin on her face because everybody was giving her business, but she didn't seem happy. She must've been worried that i would ask if she could manually fit a ring onto a blue stick to prove that it was possible. She gave me that 'look' every time she caught my eye. I really was going to ask, but she learnt very quickly to avoid my gaze.

I was reading a book on how owners open up multiple stores in a market to gain an advantage over buyers who'd love to think they've scored a bargain. The stores near the main door are always the most expensive, but when you head inwards to the inside, the stores become discounted. And when bargain hunters see this, they'll say: "yes, lucky i didn't buy from that first store i went to" and will likely buy more from the second store, whose prices could still be relatively high to the owner's cost price. This is the trap i fell into recently. A man aged around the mid-40's came out to greet me. He seemed like a loud man, but also a man of strategy. He showed me three pairs of shoes out on display and asked me to look at another pair which is plastic leather. He showed me how to distinguish from real leather, then came back to the three original pairs and said: "yes, yes, now this is real leather". He told me to try it on and i asked for a few sizes down. Any shoe seller knows that if the customer tries on the shoe, there is a big percentage increase in the chance that the customer will make a purchase. Why? Because people have face. The seller looks like he's in a hurry to go to the storage room to get a new size, but what he really does in there is linger, stand around, look at the watch, because he knows that the longer he takes in there, the more the customer will feel guilty for wasting his time if he does not make the purchase. I tried it on, it was comfortable and it looked quite okay. I asked him questions: "brand", "maintenance", "how long it will last". He tried to avoid my gaze (again) as he answered the questions, and i knew something was not right. But I still bought that pair. The art of selling shoes is unfathomable, powerful in captivating and it had all happened too fast. In reflection, i shouldn't have bought the pair of shoes, but at the same time, i should have. I exchanged a small amount of money for experience, practical learning, a laugh at myself on the way home, and not to mention a pair of leather shoes that can't be so bad. My mum always tells me (and would tell me again and again) that if you buy the wrong pair of shoes - take it for experience, if you buy the wrong car - take it for experience, if you buy the wrong house - take it for experience and feel happy for the seller, if you studied the wrong course - go and study another one, but if you marry the wrong woman - you will need to sit down and think about what a massive mistake you've made. My mum didn't marry the wrong man. But she could take that line out anywhere, anytime i.e. whenever one of us makes a mistake. The science museum in taichung is very good. What i found most fascinating about the museum was the extraordinary botanical gardens. I have never seen such a wide variety of plants anywhere. Even the leaves look interesting. After walking a whole day, i rested on some benches near the gardens and took out a sun cake to eat. I watched as couple by couple of boyfriends and girlfriends came out of the science exhibition, holding hands, talking, and pointing at the sunset. How nice, i thought. Thinking, thinking, thinking, i couldn't help noticing some by-passing insects, that were only by-passing at first but were attracted by my sun cake food scraps i had dropped while eating.

They carried my food away and then they left. How nice. I suppose i can wait.

It was arranged that my aunty would pick me up from taichung train station. While i waited she called me to ask me to go to a less-busy road to wait, because she didn't want to go through heavy traffic. On my way into the less-busy road, i spotted a billboard mounted on a tall building a few hundred metres on the left which read: "shen ai shi ren" (God so loves the world). In my mind, i was thinking about the significance of seeing this sign, and thinking, thinking, thinking it suddenly clicked. I prayed quickly to God to move my aunty to call me once again, for whatever reason. A few moments later, she called me to ask what signs i could see. I said to her: "shen ai shi ren." She replied: "shen ai shi ren?" I responded: "yes." She said: "no i don't know what that is, how about this, walk along that less-busy street until you get to a 'liang mian' (cold noodle) shop, bye" and hung up. I walked and walked and i finally spotted the cold noodle shop on my right, and to my surprise, the "shen ai shi ren" billboard was just opposite. Something in me was curious about something. I lined myself up with the centre of the cold noodle store and i turned around to face the billboard. I was aligned exactly in the centre of the billboard; one step to the right or left would have crooked the alignment. When my aunty arrived, she told me that she has never seen that billboard before in her life. She has lived in that area for 20+ years and she knows that 'less-busy' street pretty much off by heart but she has never seen a sign as clear and as visible as clear and visible get. I know that her eyes must have been blinded for all these years, but today they must see.